The mobile application market is booming, it will continue to grow unabated for years to come. It has been a decade since it began its official launch with smartphones, although it soon made the leap to tablets and smart watches. The mobile application market has become the way of life for thousands of developers around the world and, of course, it is a succulent source of income for companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple, etc. And as in almost everything, an interesting battle is also being waged in this marketA full of competitiveness from which in the end, the users are the most benefited, although not in economic terms but in quality.
The latest report by the prestigious research firm App Annie reveals that, although in 2017 and for the first time global spending on mobile applications will be higher on Android than on iOS, it will be the App Store that will continue to maintain the leadership of the income at least, until the year 2021, followed in second place by the Google Play Store.
The App Store wins the battle of mobile app stores
It has been some time since Jeff Bezos, yes, the one from Amazon, said it, and although time has proved him right, few are those who recognize it. When many wondered how it was possible to sell a tablet for as little as fifty dollars, Bezos said that the business is not in the hardware, but in the software. A few years later, with a mobile phone market saturated with very different models, brands and prices, giants like Apple itself have realized the reason for this statement by Bezos, and have begun to dedicate a lot of effort to developing applications and services . In fact, 2016 has been a year in which Apple has sold less of everything (less iPhone, less iPad, less Mac ...), but the income from its services has grown by more than 25%.
Jeff Bezos
And in the strict realm of the app market, Apple can be satisfied because according to the App Annie report, The iOS App Store will continue to be the top-grossing app store for the next five years, As minimum.
This report has a double reading as it also reveals that Total revenue from Android mobile app sales will exceed revenue from iOS apps for the first time in 2017. While this is true, it is no less true that said conclusion includes all Android application stores, that is, in addition to the Google Play Store itself, downloads from third-party application stores such as those operated by Tencent, Baidu, Xiaomi, Huawei and others, with special relevance in China.
Therefore, while Android applications will generate more income in their entirety, when we talk about stores, it will be Apple's iOS app store the one that still generates more revenue than Google's Play Store, at least until the year 2021, projection date of this report.
The App Annie study estimates that revenue from the App Store will reach 60.000 million dollars, compared to 42.000 million of the Google Play Store for that year, to which must be added the 36.000 million dollars that the stores will generate. applications for third-party Android devices.
By 2017, consumer spending on Android stores is projected to exceed the App Store. This is due to the increase in global app installs on Google Play and third-party Android stores. However, in the next five years, comparatively Apple's customer base is expected to continue to spend more revenue per device. App Annie projects that the iOS App Store will generate more than $ 60 billion in gross consumer spending in 2021, maintaining its top position in app store revenue.
The App Annie report also delves into other aspects such as the markets that will continue to lead the mobile applications sector, with special emphasis on China's leadership, growing importance of emerging markets, especially India, or the categories of applications that will generate more income that, although they will continue to be games, subscriptions to streaming media applications such as Netflix, HBO, Apple Music, etc. will grow notably ...
If you want to see the full report, you can do it here.